A blog by Turnkey Promotions Founder & CEO, Katrina VanHuss

Ignore What They Say, Measure What They Do

I talked about surveys today with a client of mine, Randi Corey of the Hydrocephalus Association. Her nonprofit experience includes working with/for:

Academic fundraising

Cystic Fibrosis

Leukemia and Lymphoma Society

JDRF March of Dimes

Hydrocephalus Association

Needless to say, I was qualified to do more listening than talking in this conversation. It was fascinating to speak at length with someone with such a breadth of experience.

She related this story:

“I had an upscale golf event while with JDRF at the Governor’s Club, an upscale venue. Someone in our group had the idea that we could save lots of money by moving to a less expensive, and less prestigious, venue. I was uncomfortable with the idea, thinking it would hurt participation.

To make me comfortable the group said, ‘let’s survey the participants from this past year and ask if it matters to them.’ We did that. The participants said, ‘we really don’t care. Move it if it will save money. We’ll be there for you regardless.’ Well, needless to say, they didn’t show up and our fundraising dropped like a rock. The next year we returned to the prestigious venue and our fundraising went back up.”

Randi’s point wasn’t that people sign up more when events are held at prestigious venues. Her point was that people don’t survey well and often don’t act as they say they will.

Participants sometimes say one thing, but do another.
We find the same thing in our work with incentive/recognition programs. Participants say in our surveys, “I wouldn’t want the gift I would earn for fundraising.” But, when presented with a gift opportunity after earning one, they redeem hand over fist. And, higher fundraisers redeem at higher percentages than lower fundraisers, though the high fundraisers most often say, “I wouldn’t take the gift.”

One thought on “Ignore What They Say, Measure What They Do”

Speaking of don’t measure what they say, measure what they do, there is a very old social psych experiment in which motel owners were contacted to see if they would permit a Black person to stay there. They said no. But when a Black person showed up, well dressed and money in hand, they got a room.

On the other hand, there are a ton of studies in aversive racism (pausing to check Google to see if that is the right term) (back, yes, right term) in which persons say they treat everyone equally regardless of race, but justify different treatment of minorities on something other than race.

Or, as James wrote in his epistle, if you say you love your brother or sister but walk away from them when they are in need, your faith is worthless. Faith without works is dead. Faith is tough to measure. But we can measure works.